It’s human nature to look away when something particularly frightening happens. I get it. But try explaining this to an auto insurance agent. They’ve seen the goriest of the gory, but they see it after the fact, not in the moment. And as much as I tried my best to explain to this agent why I looked away at the very moment a man on an electric scooter struck a car and went flying face-first onto the asphalt, I still felt like she was judging me.

“Look, I didn’t want to see this guy die in real time,” I said.

This incident, where I witnessed a helmetless man strike a vehicle on an East Village street, happened a few weeks ago. He didn’t die, but he did hit his head so hard against the street that blood gushed out. He lay there immobile for a good 30 seconds while I dialed 911. Eventually, he began to exhale some guttural groans while a crowd gathered around snapping camera pics. The woman driving the car removed her sweatshirt in hopes of stopping any more blood from leaking out of his head.

On the surface, better enforcement of helmet laws seems like a no-brainer, but it’s not that simple. Councilmember Chris Ward and progressive orgs such as Circulate San Diego have argued that the scooters aren’t so much the problem, but rather the way San Diego roads are set up to only cater to automobiles. There is certainly logic to this argument. In the accident I witnessed, the man would not have hit the car had there been a separate lane for bikes and scooters.

With the ball essentially in the scooter companies’ court, a Bird representative gathered with State Assemblymember Todd Gloria and City Councilmember Chris Ward on Tuesday to announce new public safety enhancements for its San Diego scooter fleet. These “enhancements” include things such as “geo-fencing” (basically, the scooter will slow itself down if entering a restricted area) and a “community mode” where riders can report incidents and hazards.

Maya Rosas of Circulate San Diego, a local nonprofit dedicated to city mobility and public transportation, was one of the speakers at Tuesday’s press conference. She says Bird’s commitment to data-sharing will help the city assess “how residents and visitors are using the street system.”

“But that data needs to be put to use to build safe streets for everyone,” says Rosas. “We support smart regulations that have the intent of encouraging the use and growth of alternative modes of transportation. The number one thing that is going to save lives and prevent injuries is having the right infrastructure.”

But how confident should we be that the city will use this data to truly come up with comprehensive solutions to the city’s myriad transportation, infrastructure and public safety issues? Will the other scooter companies self-regulate or assist in those goals?

It’s likely we’ll find out more this week when reps from Bird, Lime and Razor will give presentations to the City Council’s Public Safety & Livable Neighborhoods Committee. All three companies seem willing to share data with the city, but without increased enforcement of existing helmet laws or a more nuanced commitment to the safety of riders from the scooter companies, there will continue to be accidents.

The City Council should take what these companies have to say with several grains of salt. Personally, I’ve come to believe that these scooters could be a great way to get people out of their cars, but until we have maintained and separate lanes for them, the city needs to step up enforcement of existing safety laws. That is, they need to stop looking away from the increasing amounts of blood on the streets.